Cirque du Soleil

One of the things Doreen and I did to celebrate our 25^th anniversary was to go to Minneapolis with my Brother Bill and his wife Nadine to see Cirque du Soleil. Wow! They have set up a tent outside of the Mall of America where it was performed. Apparently there are about 35 of these circuses around the country and I see that a $50 million dollar one is opening on Broadway. Anyway, it was great.

We rounded out the evening by going to the Chez Daniel Bistro at the Embassy hotel and a scrumptious dinner. Doreen and I split a prime rib and had about 5 lbs left over to take home. We all stayed at Hampton near the Mall of America which was convenient but we took a shuttle there anyway. Delightful time with much good conversation. Below is the wine glasses they gave us with caricatures of our wedding outfits. Good Times!!!

Today's Grumpy Old Man Segment

Have you seen the new Culver’s ad exclaiming their custard as truly decadent? I also saw the word used positively in another ad this morning. It goes along with those folk who describe some they like as wonderfully sinful.

This language irks me. Perhaps it is reflective of an increasingly decadent society. Perhaps it is why girls are so often attracted to bad boys.

It makes more sense to me to call good things we like: heavenly, God’s gifts, angelic, good, magnificent, delightful, indescribably delicious, mouth watering, etc. Positive words to describe good things.

What I hear when the Culver’s ad is played is: “Our uppity ice cream is a bunch of decaying mush that we have to make frequently before the smell gets to you.”

Up yours Culver’s and your hamburgers are greasy enough without buttering the buns.

I really do have too much time on my hands don’t I? Gotta let the curmudgeon side out every now and then. Or is it devilish of me?

Definition of DECADENT

1: marked by decay or decline

2: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of thedecadents

3: characterized by or appealing to self-indulgence <decadentpleasures>

— dec·a·dent·ly adverb

Examples of DECADENT

1.     The book condemns some of society's wealthiest members as decadent fools.

2.     a wealthy and decadent lifestyle

3.     a decadent hotel room, complete with a hot tub

4.     We relaxed in decadent luxury.

Origin of DECADENT

back-formation from decadence

First Known Use: 1837

Related to DECADENT

Synonyms: effete, decayed, degenerate, overripe,washed-up

The etymology of decadence 

1540s, from M.Fr. décadence (early 15c.), from M.L. decadentia "decay," from decadentem (nom. decadens) "decaying," prp. of decadere "to decay," from L. de- "apart, down" (see de-) +cadere "to fall" (see case (1)). Used of periods in art since 1852, on French model.

We need to be aware of the long term implications of this legistlation

The Presbyterian Campus Ministry at UW-Madison needs your help!

Pres House, the Presbyterian Campus Ministry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is under attack in the 2011 Wisconsin Budget Bill.  Pres House provides campus ministry and a faith-based housing facility to support the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual growth of students at the state’s largest university. The budget bill contains a repeal of an important property tax exemption for Pres House. If the budget is signed with this provision in place it will have a detrimental impact on the campus ministry. It may also put at risk other important property tax exemptions in the future such as those afforded to church-affiliated college dorms, camps and conference centers, and senior housing.

  

We need help from Presbyterians from all over the state to call, email or write to Governor Walker and ask him to veto this tax on a vital Presbyterian campus ministry. The Governor needs to hear from hundreds of churches and members that he can save this 100-year-old ministry by vetoing the repeal of the Pres House property tax exemption.

The Wisconsin Council of Churches has created a very simple form to help church members email the Governor about this. Simply visit  http://capwiz.com/wichurches/issues/alert/?alertid=50599696 to complete a customizable form and submit an email in just seconds. It is very easy!

The Governor is making veto decisions within a week. Please contact him TODAY about this important matter.

Thank you,

Rev. Mark Elsdon

Pastor and Executive Director

Presbyterian Student Center Foundation (Pres House) at UW-Madison

For more information visit: www.preshouse.org. Or read the Presbyterian News Service story about this crisis at: http://www.pcusa.org/news/2011/6/7/presbyterian-run-student-housing-crossroads/

Other ways to reach Governor Walker: 
Phone
(608) 266-1212

Emailgovgeneral@wisconsin.gov

Mail
Office of Governor Scott Walker
115 East Capitol
Madison WI 53702

Where Bush Era Tax cuts are leading us

The chart below comes from the blog site, demandsideeconomics.net

American voters just have to wake up to the problems of continuing the tax cuts and how they are raising havoc with our economy and placing and increasing about of burden on the middle classes and the poor. One person on the blog site tells the story about the man who, to save money, kept feeding his donkey less and less. Of course the donkey got more and more emaciated and eventually died. Whereupon his own said, I almost had him weaned from food. That's what we are doing with our economy. We cut the programs that benefit the middle class and the poor (education, welfare, etc. and take away from the retired) making cuts in the budget and if it doesn't change the ultra rich will own a dead donkey, us. It makes no sense and yet the republicans are still telling the same old story and people buy it. The candidates sound like Reagan all over again when he promised to increase spending (mainly military) and decrease taxes and promised we would all benefit from that and get richer. It was a stupid idea then and a stupid idea now. As PK said in one of his comments, the balance sheet has to balance. You cannot decrease debt but taking away the programs that make people productive and paid well enough to sustain the economy. We need more truth and less fabrication in the current political debates. Fact check people, it's a civic responsibility.

 O

From the Christian Century Blog Site

Jun 09, 2011 by Steve Thorngate

All 50 states have regressive tax structures: the lower your income, the larger share of it goes to state taxes. While a few states have flat income-tax rates--here in Illinois, everyone pays 5 percent--most are mildly progressive (higher rates for higher income). But when you throw in regressive sales, property and excise taxes, each state's total tax burden falls hardest on those with the least to spare.

Meanwhile, states are facing major budget crises, requiring drastic spending cuts, revenue increases or both.

Via Ethics Daily, United for a Fair Economy offers a solution to both problems: invert the tax structure to make it progressive--and raise more money. A new report from the anti-inequality group analyzes data from each state and calculates how much more money could be raised if you split the population into fifths by income and then flipped the overall state tax rates.

In Illinois (pdf), the poorest fifth of the population pays 13.0 percent of its income in state taxes, while the richest fifth pays 6.2 percent. Switching these numbers--and doing the same with the second-poorest and second-richest groups--would increase state revenue by more than 50 percent. (Those of us in the middle fifth income-wise would stay at the same rate.)

It's an elegantly simple proposal. It'll never happen, of course--the political hurdles would be insurmountable. Still, an exercise like this is valuable. It highlights a startling reality: states hit poor people up for a greater share of their money than they do rich people. The fact that reversing this would pull states out of near-bankruptcy is only a secondary reason to do it. The main reason is that the current situation is shockingly unfair.

Elsewhere, Sylvester Schieber and Phillip Longman offer a smart analysis of state fiscal issues: unions aren't the problem, but pensions are a big part of it--and the solution may lie in empowering voters to keep lawmakers from using pensions to kick financial problems down the road.

Doreen and I are celebrating our 25^th anniversary today. We both can hardly believe how fast the time has gone and how much we have to celebrate together. Marriage truly is one of God’s greatest of blessings. One of the early Jewish myths show the creation of Adam as one being with two fronts, one male and one female and eventually God separates them into two people. [Obviously not the Genesis version about ribs.] I rather like that old myth because, as most myths, it contains a truth. Together we seem more complete than single. That does not mean that everyone is meant to be married or that they have to be of different genders; God’s options always seems wider than our ability to understand them.

I also agree with that John Gray’s book Women are from Venus and men are from Mars. There are great gender differences which creates lots of conflict but the benefits far outweigh the negatives. There is more balance is our lives when we have to interact with each other in marriage or in any relationships we have. I am a better person than I would have been without my 25 years with Doreen, there is no doubt, and I hope the same is true for her.

In our case there was an extra blessing for me is that I got a readymade family. Two people never just marry each other, we marry each other’s families. And so I was blessed in one day with 3 grown children and 6 grandchildren with a 7^th soon to follow. And now the family has grown and more relationships to enjoy. More family to loved and be loved by. A great great blessing that I think about constantly. It’s a big deal the joining of families and again they come with stresses and conflict, but the positives again are so much greater than the negatives. I’m sure that Doreen’s part of the family think I’m more from Neptune than either Mars or Venus from time to time. Again, I believe we all are the better for it and for that I give God thanks.

Living the life of a pastor brings additional problems in family life as our weeks are different they most other people, we work when others play and play when others work with regularity. Therefore, the weekends, when extended families commonly gather, are often minimized or lost for pastors. I think of all the many important family events I have missed with my family because of this. But again, my life as a pastor was a great blessing for which I give God thanks. And now I treasure all the more the opportunities retirement gives to take part in more of these.

Marriage is a great blessing and I give God thanks for Doreen’s and my 25 years together and prayer that God grants us many more so we can continue relationship with each other and our families and friends.

Thank you God, thank you family, thank you friends.

P.S. The picture at the top is from our honeymoon which was spent going to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church that year. Not your typical honeymoon, but then, what'd you expect.

The Filmflamm Bus Tour

Ah that Sarah Palin busing around America, making lots of money, and fibbing in her speeches. One of the last whoppers was that President Obama had increased the debt more than all other presidents combined. Senator John Kyl also said it a couple of years ago. Here’s the data. When Obama took office the debt was $6.3 trillion and now is 9.7 trillion;  3.4 trillion more. The total debt, including what we owe ourselves was $10.6 trillion and has grown to $14.3 Trillion, and increase of $3.7 trillion. All and all it is still a lot of money and gives us a very big problem in a world wide economy where folk are loosing confidence in us to handle our own financial affairs.

If you compare apples to apples in terms of increases in national debt remember that the national debt doubled under the Bush administration and tripled under the Reagan administration. And a good deal of Obama’s debt comes from those previous policies.

We live in a very rich country capable of caring well for all its citizens. So what do? We give tax cuts for the wealthy and cutbacks to program for those in need. I have written these numbers before but they need to be repeated until we get it. Over half the wealth of this country is in the hand of the top 10th of the top 1% of the country. The middle class is shrinking and its standard of living has dropped over the last 3 and half decades. The poor are getting poorer. We need to tax the millionaires and billionaires at a more sensible level and tax the heck out of the ultra ultra rich which seem to have plain bought the government, a government that continues to subsidize the rich at the expense of the rest of us.

I understand the anger of the Tea Party but they and we have been flimflammed by supply side economics the Reagan began. Sarah Palin, if you really want to do some good for the country repaint your bus to said, “Raise taxes on the rich.” But then you’re getting pretty rich on your tour and that would cost Grizzly Mom bucks.